College AU (ON HOLD)
by Lunicornn
Summary: Best friends Rose and Lissa have grown up together. Now they take the next step in their lives and move to college, struggling to balance their studies, work, friendships, relationships and their emotions. What happens when Rose meets the handsome Dimitri Belikov? Each chapter is based on a different prompt, but the story runs chronologically. A/H, Romitri, Dragozera.
1. Mailbox

**Mailbox**

 **RPOV**

Every single morning I would routinely go and check my school mailbox, always hopeful that it may be different from the previous day. And every single day I would be disappointed.

I tried not to let it get to me. I hadn't had the easiest upbringing, what with my estranged father and absent mother, so I didn't know why I was so surprised at the lack of correspondence. I had been practically raised by my best friend Lissa Dragomir's family since the tender age of eight, as my mother was constantly away for business. But early in our Sophomore year at high school, my new family and I were in a serious car accident. Lissa's parents and older brother passed away, leaving the two of us to fend for ourselves. We were taken under the care of her Uncle Victor for the next few years of high school, until recently when we came to college together.

My mother was constantly in and out of my life. Janine Hathaway was a highly respected Major General in the US Marines, married to her work and continuously away on business. She was present after the accident, taking on the role of mother and supporting both Lissa and I for several weeks. Yet when Victor offered to care for us she had no qualms in handing over the reigns. I would see her occasionally at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but she was never a staple piece in my life.

On the other hand, my father had moved out long before I was old enough to even remember him. It was only recently within the last year where we had formed any sort of connection. After several years of searching, the infamous Abe Mazur had been able to track me down and contact me. We had met twice and both meetings were sufficiently awkward, but we were both doing our best to form some kind of bond to make up for all those years of absence. Abe was also completely dedicated to his work; gaining power by blackmailing those in high places. With their careers almost being polar opposites, it was a wonder that he and my mother had been able to have a relationship. But they had, and I was the result.

I never received any mail. Victor would send letters addressed to both Lissa and I, but they never arrived at my mailbox. I suppose it was rather childish of me, a girl who had had to grow up far beyond her years to deal with the circumstances that life had thrown her way. But truth be told, I was finding college a struggle. Even though Lissa and I were roommates, we were taking completely different classes and involved in different activities. I missed my best friend. I missed my old friends from home. I missed my messed up, unconventional family.

College had brought out new insecurities in me. Usually I had Lissa by my side. I would usually be ready to face anything. But the slight separation between us was troubling me. Lissa was flourishing; making friends and experiencing new things like the social butterfly that she is. Yet I was more apprehensive about this new change, masking my nerves with sarcasm and witty comments. Caught up in her own little world of excitement, Lissa just couldn't tell. But _he_ could.

I didn't know who he was. He was simply always there. Every morning when I came to check my mailbox, he would be there at his own. His box was 160, on the right of my own, and he almost always had something to retrieve from his mailbox. I tried not to feel jealous of him, but it was hard not to. In a time when I felt so alone, it would be nice to have some kind of contact with my family other than the occasional rushed phone call.

Mailbox Number 160 was tall, towering over me at around 6'6" or 6'7" and had long, dark brown hair. He was certainly attractive, but also very reserved in his nature. He never spoke a word to me, but smiled each time he passed me in the mail room. It was nice. His deep brown eyes sparkled with friendliness despite his shy nature, and the small, simple interaction soon became my sole reason for checking my mailbox daily (I had long accepted that I would never be sent a letter).

It was common for him to pull out one or two coloured envelopes every few days. They were usually red or yellow. Some of these letters had exotic stamps on them of weird shapes I hadn't seen before. I supposed they were foreign. And judging from the writing of the return address on the back of the letters (which I couldn't read - not that I was trying to stalk him anyway, I was simply curious), they came from Russia. I would stare at them wistfully from the corner of my eye as I dutifully checked my empty mailbox over and over again. I would sigh, and I'd become aware of him sometimes watching me too as the routine played out.

Once when he accidentally dropped one of his letters, I quickly shot down and retrieved it for him. I was rewarded with a friendly, crooked smile. Still, neither of us said anything, so you could imagine my surprise when one day, about a week later, he stopped me in the doorway of the mail room and said secretly, laced in the smoothest Russian accent, "The post has arrived."

"What…?" I stared at him in confusion. But he simply smiled, released my wrist and strode away.

Mystified, I went over to my mailbox and opened it. There lay a yellow envelope addressed to _Mailbox Number 159_. I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face as I tore off the envelope. Instead, handwritten on plain white paper was the following message.

 _Dear Mailbox Number 159,_

 _I am your neighbour, Mailbox Number 160. I hope you are doing well today. I would like to thank you for your kindness and friendliness in the mornings every single day. Checking my mailbox is one of the very first things that I do, and seeing such a friendly face so early is truly a nice start to the day. I believe you're a wonderful woman and I hope that I can get to know you better. If you would too, I'll be waiting in Room Number 244._

 _From your mailbox neighbour,_

 _Dimitri Belikov_

* * *

 **AN: Hey guys, hopefully you enjoyed this! I had this new idea to write several Vampire Academy AU College drabbles that all run along the same timeline, except there's not really a plot/story line. So it's sort of a story made up of drabbles if that makes sense. I can't promise regular updates because my year 12 exams are within the next couple of months, hence this is more of a hobby or break from studying haha so please don't get mad at me for not updating as regularly as you may wish. I also am sorry to say that my story** **Rose's Bloodlines** **will not be updated until after my exams in November (at the earliest.)**

 **Anyway, please write a review and tell me what you think of this idea. I'm excited to hear from you guys again!**

 **From Lu xxx**


	2. Team

**Team**

 **RPOV**

It was my first day at training for track and I was absolutely shitting myself. I'd only been to a couple of sessions with my fellow freshmen; this would be my first time training with the rest of the track team.

I don't really know why I was so anxious. I suppose it was the change factor. Everything was just so different and I had only just gotten used to my current routine. Now, two weeks into the quarter, the freshmen were joining the rest of the team for regular training.

So far, I'd managed to form several friendships amongst the freshmen. Meredith was a real riot, humorous and friendly in nature, and the attractive Jesse was a real flirt. It was nice knowing that I had at least a few people I could spend time with during practise. I had begged Lissa to join with me, but it just really wasn't her thing. She'd decided to join some sorority instead. I wasn't going to complain; the more parties I was invited to the better. It was just a little lonely without my best friend spending all her time with me like we had back at home.

Realising the time, I quickly changed into a bright pink tank top and black running shorts, grabbed my gym back and headed out to track practise. There was a large group of over one hundred, as every member of the track and field team was present for today. We were going to split into groups later and then discuss group training times depending on which event we were in.

I looked around, trying to find a familiar face amongst the masses. Meredith was nowhere to be found. I could see Jesse though. He was across the crowd, flirting with a blonde girl in a sports bra. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that. All alone as I approached the group, I felt a bit like an outsider. Sure, it would probably take me all of two minutes to find my feet and start making friends, but it was just that first impression that was going to be the difficult bit. Taking a deep breath, I tried to summon up as much Rose Hathaway bravado as I could as I stepped amongst the group. That's when I heard my name.

"Rose!"

Turning around, I saw none other than Dimitri Belikov, standing over by the chainlink fence with his leg hitched up over it, stretching. And damn his ass looked fine from this angle.

I had visited his room the evening of the day when I received his letter. It turned out that he was only down the hall from my dorm room and so with Lissa's encouragement, I decided to go over. We had struck up a pleasant conversation for a few minutes before he had to leave, but had exchanged numbers and intended to properly catch up. I had learnt that he was a sophomore, originally from Russia - hence the accent - and that he was studying quite similar subjects to me.

"Hey Dimitri, you never told me you were on that track team," I said with a grin as I joined him.

"We did only get to speak for five minutes," he pointed out. "And you never told me that you were on the team either."

I chuckled. "True. What's your event?"

"Distance. What about you?" he asked.

"Same," I grinned. "You're going to be seeing a lot of me this year, I suppose."

"I'm sure I'll survive," Dimitri said with a crooked smile.

At that moment we were interrupted as everyone was split into their event category groups and assigned our coaches. Ours was an older woman around fifty with greying brown hair and a weathered face. Despite her tough exterior, she seemed to be a lovely woman.

"Alright you guys. My name is Alberta and I'll be your coach for distance," she said as her eyes scanned us like a hawk. "I expect you to be putting in 100% every training. I have faith in you guys. You'd better make me proud."

Dimitri caught my eye and winked.

"Right so today we are just going to be testing you guys. You'll run the course, and this will help me determine where you're at."

I braced myself as Alberta pulled out a stopwatch.

"I will be timing you. And you start now," she barked with a grin.

I immediately pushed myself into the zone. It had been a few weeks since I'd run so rigorously, but the competition had adrenaline running through me. My ponytail flew back off my neck and my legs stretched out comfortably as I reached my preferred gait. Now I simply had to maintain it.

Looking around my and taking in my teammates for the first time, I realised I was in the front group. I didn't know how many were behind me, but there was a tall blonde guy and an even taller dark skinned guy running beside me. Ahead of me was Dimitri, his ridiculously long legs probably giving him some kind of unfair advantage against the rest of us. I mean at 5'7" how could I compete to a giant such as he?

As we reached the end of the course, I broke away from the other two. I wanted - no needed - to prove myself to Alberta. She was awesome, and I had to show her exactly how dedicated I was to my sport. Pushing my legs harder, I gained slight ground and slowly approached Dimitri. He, of course, didn't slow in the slightest and I was only a tiny bit closer, but it was enough that I left the other two several metres behind me. Dimitri was still finished at least ten seconds before me.

My legs aching, I slowed down to a jog and headed towards where Dimitri and Alberta stood.

He smiled and chucked me a water bottle. "Good job for a little one."

"We can't all be freakishly tall," I retorted, gulping down the bottle's content gratefully.

"Jokes aside, you're very talented," he said sincerely.

I smiled in return. "Well you're not too bad yourself, my friend."

"Hey, you two," Alberta . "I'm going to be pairing you guys together as training partners. You'll need to organise between the two of you when you're going to have your extra training. I require all my team to attend our mandatory practises but y'all will need to schedule several other training sessions for yourselves throughout the week. Either outside on the course or inside at the gym, doing conditioning or anything else that you deem fit. I just want to see progress. You two may be my fastest athletes but that doesn't mean you can slack. I had great hope for you." She gave us a nod, and headed off, presumably to assign the other distance members their training partners.

Dimitri held up his hand for a high-five, and I laughed.

"Hey partner, I guess you'll be seeing a lot of me," Dimitri echoed my earlier words.

I grinned. "I'm sure I'll get used to it, Comrade."

* * *

 **AN: Hey guys, I kind of fangirled over this chapter. I hope it's good. Tell me what you think by leaving a review and it may give me the incentive I need to update faster with another chapter!/**

 **Also, if you have any college AU ideas or prompts that you would like to see me incorporate into this fanfic, please tell me by leaving a review or sending me a PM. I have a list of 60 prompts/AUs that I might possibly use, but I also love new ideas.**

 **From Lu xxx**


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